Five Best College Football Rivalries

With college football upon us once again, it’s time to talk about what makes this version of the sport so great – rivalries that stand the test of time. While there will always be rivalries in the professional ranks, they usually ebb and flow based on how good a team is. We had Dallas and San Francisco in the early- to mid-1990s, but that largely means nothing now.

In college football, the names change, but loyalty for one’s school trumps all, so it makes these storied rivalries timeless. If both teams happen to be good and that adds to the stakes of the game, that’s just icing on the cake.

Let’s look at the top 5 rivalries in college football.

5. Miami-Florida State

There are plenty of candidates when you consider rivalries in the Sunshine State. Florida and Florida State play every year, and even duked it out for the National Championship in 1996. There’s the sporadic Florida-Miami rivalry, and even UCF and USF are trying to do everything in their power to get into the conversation. However, Miami-Florida State evokes the greatest memories, and they have been conference rivals in the ACC for 15 years now. This rivalry gained steam in the 1990s, when both teams were perennial national powerhouses, and the term “Wide Right” was born from this rivalry. From 1991 to 2004, the Seminoles missed five late field goals (four of them were missed to the right) in narrow defeats to the Canes.

4. Oklahoma-Texas

The Red River Rivalry is the main event of the State Fair of Texas in Dallas every year. Despite the game being in Texas, Dallas is the closest halfway point from Norman, OK and Austin, TX, so it’s truly a neutral contest. The rivalry began in 1900 and gained national prominence in 1963, when the No. 1 Longhorns beat the No. 2 Sooners on their way to Texas’s first National Championship. It was routinely a top-10 matchup in the 2000s and early-2010s. After a rough patch, Texas is back in the spotlight. The Longhorns were the only team to beat the Sooners in the regular season in 2018, but Oklahoma avenged the defeat when the rivals met in the Big 12 Championship game for the first time in their illustrious histories.

3. Alabama-Auburn

While the Iron Bowl rivalry dates back to 1893, you need not look back further than the past decade to understand the drama on the field and the hatred off it. In 2010 – shortly after Auburn erased a 24-0 deficit to beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa – a crazed Tide fan poisoned historic oak trees in Auburn’s famous Toomer’s Corner. The Tigers went on to win the National Championship that year with Cam Newton at quarterback. In 2013, Auburn beat Alabama with no time remaining when they returned a missed field goal 109 yards for the winning score in the game that would be known as the “Kick Six.” In 2017, Auburn won on the field, but Alabama got the last laugh when, despite the loss, the Tide were voted into the College Football Playoff and won the whole thing.

2. Ohio State-Michigan

Ohio State and Michigan meet on the final weekend of the regular season each year, and throughout history, a Big Ten title was usually on the line. Now, it’s a division crown that is decided by this game, many times. Former Buckeyes coach Woody Hayes wouldn’t even say the word Michigan, instead referring to the Wolverines as “that team up north.” In 2006, both teams were 11-0 going into the matchup, and the game was referred to as the “Game of the Century,” because the winner would be going to the National Championship Game. Ohio State won, 42-39, but were upset by the Florida Gators for the title. Both teams have dominated the rivalry at times, but it’s currently Ohio State who’s enjoying a 14-1 stretch over their rivals in the past 15 years. Jim Harbaugh has yet to beat the Buckeyes since returning to his alma mater as the Wolverines’ head coach.

1. Army-Navy

This has to be considered the greatest rivalry because of its purity. The game is usually one of few contested on the entire Saturday in early December. The pregame pageantry of parades, flyovers, and videos can’t be matched. The action on the field is intense, but respectful, as both teams unite as one at the end. Navy has dominated the action on the field in recent years, winning 14 in a row from 2002-15, but Army has won the last three contests by a combined 12 points.